Do you want to make the world a better place but still need to make your business work? Ethical marketing ensures you can keep ethics at the core of your business while still promoting your organisation. Just because you use ethical marketing tactics or think eco-consciously doesn’t mean your business won’t succeed. In fact, it’s much more likely to thrive with an ever-growing market of ethical consumers. Read on to learn some ethical and sustainable marketing tips that will help your company grow.
Ethical and sustainable marketing
While ethical marketing may seem more complex, it’s actually incredibly easy to put into practice. Being truthful and transparent is straightforward, whereas marketing that bends the truth or outright lies needs to be twisted to accommodate the message. In my opinion, that is a much harder feat than simply telling the truth. Here are four core practices that ensure your marketing and promotion is as ethical as they can be.
Sticking To Your Principles
This is probably the first thing to consider when it comes to ethical marketing; defining what that means to you and your company. You should use your principles as the guiding light for all your marketing practices. I’ve discussed at length what ethical marketing is on the blog, so check out the collection of articles in my ethical marketing and business blog categories.
The main part of ethical marketing is to put your principles into practice. While it’s quite unlikely to be 100% ethical in all business decisions (think of the Zero Waste movement), aligning closely to them is what we should all strive for. You cannot use eco-talking points in your marketing if you are not putting them into practice in your own business. For example, decrying plastic waste on social media but not even having plastic recycling bins in your own office.
Reducing Energy
In our current cost of living crisis, energy prices have been top of the news. While the prices are outrageous, and this needs to be addressed for both homes and businesses, I’ve seen little mention of energy conservation. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that people should sit shivering in their homes; we all have the right to heating. Businesses are the real problem when it comes to the overconsumption of energy. From supermarket fridges with no doors, having store lights on throughout the night and destroying perfectly good items, businesses are rife with energy wastage.
If you want to be on board with more sustainable marketing, reducing energy consumption in your organisation is crucial. Some things to avoid and to implement include;
- Don’t create promotional items which are likely to be thrown away and not even used; pens, notepads, and calendars are big culprits. All those resources and energy could be put to better use.
- Improving the speed of your websites and apps and reducing the energy consumption of your web visitors and customers.
Don’t Promote Overconsumption
Reducing our consumption as a country is a significant step in improving our eco credentials. It saves resources, energy and your wallet, but you may be wondering how you can grow if you don’t push your products. The answer is to focus on creating quality products that people can make long-term use of and cherish. Take a leaf out of the clothing brand Patagonia, whose famous campaign, Don’t buy this jacket, actually improved their sales.
Your marketing can focus on how to care for your products, who the product is for and why it’s beneficial to the wider world. Marketing tactics to avoid include timers that generate anxiety, false scarcity and false loss. Heart of Business has a great guide on common unethical sales strategies. It’s easy to avoid promoting overconsumption by going back to a focus on truth and transparency. When you are honest with your audience, it’s easy to promote ethical and sustainable consumption.
Beware of greenwashing
You may have noticed a theme throughout these tips, and that is that ethical marketing is built on truth. At its core, ethical marketing is so successful because you are being honest with your customers, and that builds trust. When it comes to all types of marketing, whether social media or traditional newspaper articles, we always want to show off our business’s best quality. However, this can lead many to greenwash their promotions to come across as more eco-friendly than they are. Instead, by sticking to the facts, you can showcase what you do perform well in, and that’s what people buy. On the other hand, highlighting where you could do better can also engender trust. People buy from people. and if you discuss your flaws openly (and, most importantly, how you are working on them), you can build even more trust.
Ethical and sustainable marketing with Middleton Marketing
If you need more guidance on a sustainable, eco and ethical marketing strategy, get in touch with me today. Middleton Marketing specialises in ethical marketing and produces work with a focus on green and ethical practices. I have pledged to The Ethical Move and continually build my skills and practices to continue to improve my ethical marketing credentials. From sustainable SEO, eco-conscious content and accessible Web Improvements, I use my principles to guide successful campaigns and grow your organisation, so you don’t have to compromise yours.